WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he has instructed the Commerce Department to change the way the Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
The Republican president said on his social media platform the census’ data collections will be based on “modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” an indication he might try to inject his politics into survey work that measures everything from child poverty to business operations.
Trump stressed that as part of the changes people in “our Country illegally” will be excluded from census counts.
His Truth Social post fits into an overall pattern in which he has tried to reshape basic measures of how U.S. society is faring to his liking, a process that ranges from monthly jobs figures to how congressional districts are drawn going into the 2026 midterm elections.
Changes to the census could also play into the efforts by Trump to urge several Republican-led states, including Texas, to redraw their congressional maps ahead of schedule in ways that would favor GOP candidates.
Redistricting typically occurs once every 10 years following the census, as states adjust district boundaries based on population changes, often gaining or losing seats in the process.
Despite Texas having redrawn its maps just a few years ago, Trump is pressuring Republicans in the state to redistrict again, claiming they are “entitled” to five additional Republican seats. Texas Republicans have cited population growth as justification for redrawing the congressional map.
Trump’s team is also engaged in similar redistricting discussions in other GOP-controlled states, including Missouri and Indiana.
Last Friday, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after standard revisions to the monthly jobs report showed that employers added 258,000 fewer jobs than previously reported in May and June. The revisions suggested that hiring has severely weakened under Trump, undermining his claims of an economic boom.
The White House insists that the problem was the size of the revisions and that it wants accurate numbers.
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